Many Cohereians make content for a living. Whether it’s straight up ad or marketing copy, a novel, or daily blog posts, providing new and engaging content is what makes our world go ’round. We depend on this content to attract new clients, give us credibility, and increase our visibility on the interwebs in general.

Recently, Google announced some big changes in the way that it associates you with your content, and how it judges whether your content is worth of appearing above someone else’s in search results. It’s called Google Authorship, a feature some say shows that Google is now beginning to put the emphasis on who created the content rather than where it’s posted.

If you or your company is involved in content creation or SEO, Google Authorship could be a game changer. If you’ve received a notice or invitation recently regarding this feature from Google, here’s what you need to know:

1. The basic goal of Authorship is to associate web pages with the Google+ profile of their authors.

The idea is that when someone searches for you or something you’ve written, your Google+ thumbnail and a link to your profile will appear next to it in the search results. “This creates what’s known as a ‘handshake’ between the two sites, a foolproof way of identifying the owner of both the content and the Google+ profile.” It’s not quite the same link juice as an incoming link from a high traffic website, but it’s still a vote of confidence in Google’s opinion, and that’s valuable.

2. Google Authorship Boosts Your Importance and Authority in Your Niche

According to Bizbrag, when an author consistently publishes quality content, and that content continues to attract heavy traffic and buzz, that author will eventually build up a strong “Author Ranking,” which in return will boost the traffic and, hopefully, the ranking of the other content that he has written.

3. Google Authorship Encourages Interaction

Want to know what your readers are thinking or the topics they really want you to write about? Google Authorship creates a path for dialogue that’s actually superior to a fan page now that Facebook has completely effed those up. A loyal reader searching for more of your stuff will be greeted with an opportunity to add you to their circles, meaning they’ll be able to follow your content (if you’re posting it) and even as you a question or send a compliment (if you’re checking your G+ stream regularly).

Want in? This Google help page provides a step by step guide to setting up your Authorship.